Audience reviews
20 · Sample from the first available page, separate from the total number of ratings.
AnimeExplorer21
You know, I did not expect much when I clicked play on Koikimo. I thought it would be just another light romantic comedy to kill time. But halfway through the first episode, I paused and thought to myself, "Wait… this feels kind of real." And by the time I finished the final episode, I was smiling like a fool and also feeling a little sad that it ended.
Yes, Koikimo is about a 27 year old man developing feelings for a 17 year old girl. And yeah, I get it, that is going to make a lot of people uncomfortable. But if you are someone who actually watched the series with an open mind instead of jumping to conclusions, you would know this anime is not about anything creepy. It is about growth. It is about change. It is about love blooming in the most unexpected of places.
Ryou, the main guy, s…
Read at the sourcebrightdeadthings
I still wonder why I watched it. I usually drop stuff I don’t like and this was quite bad. I suppose I had two unconscious reasons. The first one was that I hoped it would get better (though that was naive of me) and the second one was pure curiosity. I wanted to see how bad it could get. There were some things I enjoyed about it, and I liked some characters occasionally. However, I have a problem with the entire scope of the show. Some viewers might see grooming here and they won’t be wrong. Though love happens at all ages, it was creepy to watch an almost 30 year old falling in love with a 17 year old high school girl only because she told him he’s creepy. The entire plot was flawed and creepy, even for an anime. But it wasn’t just that. After all, it’s fiction, you take it or leave it,…
Read at the sourceAnimeEnjoyer420
It's easy to be offended by a show with a premise like this, but let's just stipulate from the beginning that this is an age gap romance between an adult man and a high school girl. We all know the deal here from the synopsis. If this sort of a thing is a hard no to you, you probably aren't even reading this review. So, taking Koikimo on its own terms, does it succeed at creating a compelling romance? I will spare you the suspense, the answer is an emphatic no.
Before diving into the meat of what went wrong with this series, I think it's worth mentioning that the presentation does it no favors. Character designs are bland at best, ugly at worst, and the animation is consistently below average, with characters frequently going off model. This is even worse considering how unambitious the s…
Read at the sourceGrayegoose
I just found this show and it's adorable! Yeah, an age difference like that is challenging, especially at those ages, but in another 10 years, it won't matter. I dated someone 28 when I was 18, so I understand her feelings and struggles. If you can get past the age thing, though, it is a really sweet love story! and for all the haters talking about him being a creeper, he was a different person when they first met. He seemed numb to the world and she was his wake-up call. She even called him a creeper up front. Love can change you and for him, it was for the better. I thought this was a sweet and very honest romance. I also have to agree with the other reviews, Rio deserves a spin-off of her own! She was a great wingman! :D
Read at the sourcemushi_Jyou
Reason for watching: I went into this thinking it would be more Comedy than Romance, and had thought some negative reviews were exaggerating.
But honestly not much exaggeration.
*Mild spoiler as I do give out the basic premise and gave a general layout of the storyline.
TL;DR at the bottom.
Let me do a quick review and opinion on this:
Visuals: Definitely up my alley. I like the animation of the story, the art style of the animation, the OP, and ED. They are beautiful to me. Of course the animation could be better, but is not like this is some shounen show with lots of action, so I do not expect them to put a lot into animating each scene. 8/10
Audio: Seiyuus performance were fine. Is as good as you can expect from such animation. The female lead is able to show emotions through he…
Read at the sourceNekoMinSeo
I don't know how else to describe this show in short besides "Sexual harassement/stalking of a teenage girl is fine and will eventually get rewarded!"- The Anime.
Honestly, that's it. That's the anime.
When I started I thought I'd at least be in for at least SOME nuance, since I'm not inherently against age gap romances, I wouldn't even be against sexual harassement of a teenage girl in fiction if it's done with the purpose of exploring a certain toxic type of relationship, but this does neither explore or make a commentary. It's supposed to be cute. Yeah. But I can't possibly find it cute when the ML does nothing but be insisting, possessive, do things nobody asked for and continously profess he's undying love because this one girl just happened to be a normal human being with common…
Read at the sourceRebelPanda
Koikimo is dangerous because it uses cutesy art and rom-com cliches to hide what it's really about: A creepy adult man harassing and grooming a high school girl. The girl rejects the man, calls him disgusting, yet he continues to pursue her romantically and sexually. He takes pictures of her without consent, he visits her uninvited, he gets close to her mother, he flirts with her while she’s vulnerable and alone, he gives her tons of gifts, and he expects her love in return. Worst of all, it is targeted at teenagers. Not cute. Very fucked up.
The art, animation, and sound are terrible too. Even though there is barely any animation, the character's faces morph like melting plastic. Their body proportions are constantly changing depending on the angle. Rather than using verbal dialogue, at…
Read at the sourceLenevalia
This anime bait and switched me and I'm super, super angry about it.
Full disclaimer, my parents are 13 years apart and they've been happily married for over 20 years. They're still grossly in love with way too much PDA for a couple their age, but I digress. The disclaimer is to show that while age gaps can work, they only work between adults and NOT an adult and a minor (my mom was 25 when she met my dad who was 38).
I've seen reviews that point out how predatory and dangerous this anime is by covering up the premise with cutesy art, an incredibly catchy soundtrack, and dainty shoujo elements, and I wholeheartedly agree.
This anime is about a 27 year old man forcing his feelings onto a 17 year old girl, the synopsis does a great job at telling you everything you need to know because th…
Read at the sourcegiraffenanime
When I found out that this anime finished airing, I decided to binge it... I started watching this yesterday at 7pm and finished it the next day before 1pm... I don't usually binge this hard, but 12 episodes is so easy and the story is JUST SOOOOO CUTE!!! Now, let's get into the anime basics.
Story; Our heroine Ichika Arima, your normal high-schooler, saves the man Ryo Amakusa from falling down a flight of stairs at the train station. Not having any connection whatsoever, they both don't think of each others meeting as anything important... until Ryo comes home to find Ichika on his couch. Little did he know the high-schooler who saved his life was his sisters friend from school(WHAT A COINCIDENCE). Being his usual sleazebag self, he offers gifts and his body for saving his life, not expe…
Read at the sourceSenator_Phillips
While Charles Darwin long ago described his theory of evolution, I dare say he never envisioned humans enjoying a “rom-com" anime that would bend the definition of “entertainment” and leave a viewer’s imagination and love of anime Isekaid into a world where all that plays is Monochrome City.
For you newcomers to my reviews, I will dissect my opinion into 5 crucial sections, henceforth known as napkins.
Napkin #1
Story (1/10)
To say the story is nothing original is an understatement. We begin our journey with our heroine “saving the life” of our tragic hero, thus earning his undying affection and love. Interestingly, this very situation could be playing out with Studio Nomad, the “brains” behind Koikimo. Perhaps this hastily put together narrative reflects the fact that much like Ichika…
Read at the sourcemakotoplz
So before I delve into one of my favourite romance animes that's just finished airing, I'd like to point out a couple of things.
1. The anime has a satisfying ending that would, imo, end all arguments slandering this anime for this age gap.
2. Ryo (the male MC) has never overstepped any boundaries (at least from my perspective he hasn't)
and 3. He never sought out a high schooler and fell for her, it was all just a big coincidence that led to well... this. I feel like the third one is important because before Ichika happened, I don't think Ryo had ever considered courting a high schooler let alone falling for them. To which the quote "you don't choose who you fall in love with" can be taken horribly depending on the circumstance but shouldn't be wrongly applied here, because I strongly…
Read at the sourcesougo_13
Let me get straight to the point before my review. Take this as a personal disclosure, with a grain of salt. I do not encourage anyone to get this anime as a message to get out of the norm and try to court a "highschooler" (or a minor depending on your laws). The fictional characters inside this anime are good people, but this kind of relationship does happen in real life. And it could end good, but also, it could end bad or really bad. Is outside the norm and heavily criticized by our current unwritten rules of our living society. So, is an atypical love story dear reader. Please, watch this anime with proper discretion and with a clear open mind. Don't judge it, because it could happen to your daughters, to your sons, to your brothers, to your sisters, to any friend or someone close to y…
Read at the sourcebulkyhog
Koikimo does a good job of living up to its name, but I won't be going into why this is a creepy or weird romcom anime; you've surely read enough reviews about that at this point.
Instead, I'll briefly go over why all that controversial stuff aside, this anime still sucks balls. Romance wise, the execution is quite sub-optimal. Comedy is subjective, yes, but I didn't really find anything in Koikimo funny, so no points there either.
I would've rated this a 1, but Tamaru was such a great character that I couldn't do him wrong, so Koikimo gets a 2 in my book just for this giga chad.
TLDR: Koikimo, controversy aside, is still a bad anime. Comedy falls flat, the entire cast except for 2 characters are hugely uninteresting and boring, and the plot/story is horribly paced and designed.
Story:…
Read at the sourceanairam9
Okay, let's get over with this (spoilers ahead, I don't even care):
Story: 2/10
I'm not going into much detail in this aspect because other people already have in other reviews, and I don't have nothing new to add. Yeah, is dreadful, but we all knew what we were going to get. Gotta give the anime credit though, it was really self aware of what it was doing.
Art: 3/10
My sister told me the art looked like a it was from a hentai. Did she lie though?
Sound: 9/10
I'm giving this a 9 solely because of the op. It was the best of the season and you can't change my mind. Also, shout out to Junya Enoki and Kana Hanazawa for being two of the best seiyuus rn.
Character: 3/10
I hate everything about the main guy; his design, his personality, even his voice (the actor was fine, but I didn't like th…
Read at the sourcettmeng
This is an otherwise forgettable age gap shoujo where the plot line is a will-they-won't-they. The characters are all pleasant and nice. Rating it lower because it's devoid of a plot that doesn't rely on the romance.
This reminds me of Tamaki and Haruhi dynamic from Ouran High School Host Club but on steroids.
The premise is problematic. Ryo nearly trips from falling down the stairs on the subway and Ichika saves him with her umbrella. She then gives him her bento. They both don't think they'll meet again when they reunite at Rio's house. Rio is his younger sister. From there, Ryo proposes he give her or a kiss or offer to sleep with her to thank her. Ichika doesn't take it seriously at all and just calls him a creep.
It's problematic that his sister then wants to ship her older brot…
Read at the sourceCrimsonKing25
When Koi to Yubo was announced it got a lot of people both defending and attacking the plot before it even aired. Me, being the rational person that I am, waited until it aired to see how it actually is. I do like shoujo romance anime and while most of them tend to be copy and paste stories, they do give me enjoyment and some have a really cute and fun-loving romance. Koi to Yobu wasn't like that. If anything, it somehow went below my expectations, which wasn't high to begin with.
Characters (2/10)
Ryo and Ichika are by far the blandest and boring characters I've come across who have just about enough chemistry as oil and water. They both are one-note personality type characters who are known for one thing and one thing only. For Ryo he is a love-struck idiot who doesn't even understand t…
Read at the sourceskysurf
This anime feels like watching Pepé Le Pew from Looney Tunes, but with the kitten falling in love with the skunk for no reason.
In one line, it's a show trying hard to romanticize sexual harassment.
This is the story of a creepy grown ass man romantically pursuing a high school girl by stalking, harassing and gaslighting her. His obsession starts by the simple fact that the girl apparently has been the only non-shallow woman he has met that rejected his creepy advances, so he immediately sets on a mission to conquer her whether she likes it or not.
Even though the MC girl already told him to stop and that she's uncomfortable with the unwelcome attention, the male MC still continued relentlessly after that. Some of the creep's actions include: multiple unsolicited phone calls even late a…
Read at the sourceMarinate1016
“You can’t judge another country by your country’s standards” A simple, yet oft forgotten message. Koikimo is a series that exemplifies the differences between the west and Japan in terms of entertainment. If you’re sensitive or not able to accept that fiction does not equate to reality, you should avoid this. If you are sensible and understand that you can enjoy a story, without necessarily agreeing with the premise and characters’ actions, this is a gold mine.
Koikimo’s premise is truthfully a bit… odd, with the MC basically stalking the girl he likes, who happens to be a high school student and classmate of his little sister, but it’s presented in such a way that makes you forget what’s even going on. Koikimo uses a really cute aestethic to hide a questionable premise, and does so very…
Read at the sourceNextUniverse
(TLDR Review at the bottom, as usual, thanks for reading.)
Is Spongebob Squarepants an asshole for pissing off Squidward?
Is Peppa Pig a douchebag for body-shaming her dad?
Is Richard Watterson someone it would be better to kill due to his lack of support in society and being a somewhat bad parent to his children?
I don't see how anything I have said above is legit criticism in any way other than the enjoyment factor. So I don't really understand why characters in Koikimo are getting hate for doing their roles.
"Almost every single season nowadays, it seems there has to be a scapegoat. An anime which you are somehow obliged to publically hate on or you'll be looked down upon by the community and no one will take you seriously."
To you, (1)4 years from now. Nothing has changed.
The…
Read at the sourceKANLen09
You've seen it all around the world, and it is one that still baffles the Average Joe's mind: age-gap relationships, specifically one that is more than 10 years of difference (and oh look, this show has that exact figure conspicously!). And for fact or fiction, this season we're facing 2 back-to-back similar-but-different approaches to that: this show (KoiKimo) and HigeHiro, the former: an unrelenting adult on a sexual predator's level of unhinged stalking and harassment towards a typical normal high school JK; the latter: everything else that is this show but the complete opposite (and not to mention better in every other way).
Disregarding HigeHiro for now, KoiKimo for better or for worse, I'd say is "Redo of Healer" levels of the rom-com genre, though it was marketed at that from face…
Read at the source